7090 – B[L]OOM
B[L]OOM is a sound art installation and an instrument, made from what once was a piano and a trombone.

It emits a soft, but insisting song of longing and melancholy where echoes and visions merge. It is a tribute to Reinbert de Leeuw and a bow to everything that is convincingly flexible. Or like G.K. Chesterton wrote long ago:

“In everything that yields gracefully, there must be resistance. Bows are beautiful when they bend only because they seek to remain rigid.
Rigidity that slightly yields, like Justice swayed by Pity,
is all the beauty of the world. Everything seeks to grow straight, and happily,
nothing succeeds in so growing.
Try to grow straight and life will bend you.”

Evelien van den Broek – Deadpan / Buster
For the special Dag in de Branding edition, composer Evelien van den Broek created the audiovisual composition Deadpan, inspired by silent film legend Buster Keaton. The performance consists of a series of short pieces in which pianist Nora Mulder and trombonist Koen Kaptijn trigger and manipulate film clips live, while performing a lively, dryly comedic electro-acoustic soundtrack. Evelien, a former Film Studies student, brings her enduring love of cinema together with music in a colorful, playful tribute to Keaton’s iconic deadpan style. The musicians take on the roles of cinema organist and explicateur, offering a modern interpretation of the classic slapstick tradition.